Clean Air Technology

Air Filters

At this point, you may be thinking to yourself: doesn't my HVAC system's air filter get rid of unwanted contaminants? The answer, in many cases, is that your air filter may not capture as many pollutants as you think. That isn't to say that your air filter doesn't play an important role in indoor air quality — just that it cannot account for removing all contaminants on its own.

Airborne contaminants can be broken down into three main categories: particulates, mold/germs, and odors/volatile organic compounds. Traditional air filters are only able to deal with the first of these three categories: particulates. This includes such contaminants as dust, dirt, pollen, pet dander, and combustion byproducts.  

Manufacturers express the effectiveness of an air filter at removing particulate matter in terms of the minimum efficiency reporting value, or MERV rating for short. MERV ratings fall along a scale from 1 to 16. Generally speaking, the higher a filter's MERV rating, the better a job it does at capturing airborne particles. Yet even the best-rated air filter cannot handle other the second two categories of airborne contaminants. As a result, mold spores, germs, odors, and volatile compounds can evade even the most tightly-woven air filters. Over time, the concentrations of such contaminants will continue to build up, leading to potentially problematic health effects.

Ultraviolet Purification

An APCO In-Duct Air Purifier takes a much different approach to removing unwanted substances from your air. These purifiers make use of highly effective ultraviolet light — or UV light, for short — to neutralize potentially hazardous contaminants. UV light occurs naturally, making up approximately 10 percent of the sun's light output. It can also be generated artificially, which is what a UV purifier does.

UV light differs from regular light due to its much shorter wavelength. In fact, the wavelengths of UV light are so short that it remains invisible to the human eye. This short length allows the light rays to more easily pass through cell walls of living organisms. There the UV light disrupts the nucleus of the cell.

An APCO air purifier is located inside of your home's main ventilation duct. This location means that all of the air moving through your HVAC system must pass through the purifier and be exposed to the powerful UV-C rays. These rays destroy any living organisms such as mold spores, bacteria, and viruses, by disrupting their DNA. In other words, an APCO air purifier acts as a highly effective germicidal filter, destroying the sorts of pathogens that might otherwise cause you and your family to develop debilitating illnesses.

Activated Carbon

Now that you understand how an APCO air purifier tackles the mold spores and germs that get through a traditional air filter, you may be wondering what it does to eliminate the gases and volatile organic compounds in your air. To accomplish this job, an APCO purifier uses a second type of technology known as activated carbon.

Activated carbon, also known as activated charcoal, removes volatile gases from your air in a completely unique way. Gas molecules are naturally attracted to a bed of activated carbon. There they stick to the carbon molecules by means of a process known as adsorption. In addition to trapping volatile gases, activated carbon also captures unwanted odors in the air.

Photocatalytic Oxidation

A typical activated carbon filter has a limited capacity. In other words, like a regular air filter, it will gradually become clogged up with the unwanted gases removed from your air. Eventually the filter will become so saturated that it can no longer remove any more gases from your air. Fortunately, the activated carbon filters in an APCO air purifier manage to avoid this problem.

The key involves a type of process known as photocatalytic oxidation, or PCO for short. This technology works in much the same way as the catalytic converter in your car's exhaust system. The activated carbon filter in an APCO purifier comes infused with particles of titanium dioxide.

As the UV light shines on the titanium dioxide, the captured contaminants naturally disintegrate. This disintegration produces two harmless byproducts, water vapor and carbon dioxide, which are released back into the air of your home. Photocatalytic oxidation effectively cleans the activated carbon filter, meaning you won't need to worry about replacing it regularly.